Differences in Educational Effects of Basic Life Support Course in a Manufacturing Company by the Number of Previous Participations

Objectives The objective is to clarify whether conducting a basic life support (BLS) course in the workplace enhances employees' confidence in and knowledge of BLS, and to assess if the impact diminishes for those who participate repeatedly. Methods We studied 299 manufacturing company employees who attended a 60-to-90-minute BLS course. Participants were divided into three groups based on the number of previous attendance sessions: none, one or two, and three or more. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess their levels of confidence in checking responses, chest compressions, and the use of an automated external defibrillator (score range: 0-5) and knowledge (0-7) before and after the BLS course. We examined the change in scores using a two-way repeated analysis of variance. Results Confidence and knowledge scores increased for all participants after the BLS course (p < 0.001). Time-by-group interactions among the three groups for confidence and knowledge scores were all significant. The lower the number of previous courses attended, the greater the increase in scores. The increase in confidence and knowledge scores was significantly greater in those who had never taken a BLS course than in those who had taken it three or more times. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the BLS course was highly effective for participants who had never taken a BLS course. It may be necessary to formulate course content specifically tailored to those who have repeatedly attended the course, as opposed to merely perpetuating the same course content.